


Resolutions

by thirdtimecharmed



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Explicit Language, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 14:18:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15708930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thirdtimecharmed/pseuds/thirdtimecharmed
Summary: So you've just saved the world... now what? Or: a lot of hurt/comfort as the IPRE and friends deal with a whole lot of trauma post-Story and Song. Heavily inspired by a post @questbedhead on tumblr made about what Taako and Lucretia's reconciliation might look like.





	1. Chapter 1

“I can be civil. Civil is my middle name,” Taako insisted as he rifled through a cabinet (nominally looking for cayenne but realistically hiding his grimace from his sister).

“First of all, that’s Merle’s schtick,” Lup pointed out, “and secondly you’ve never been civil to anyone a day in your life.” 

“I was-” Taako stopped himself as he realized she was right. Dammit. “Look, everyone doesn’t have to agree with me. This doesn’t have to be a  _ thing _ . I’m not going to throw punches or storm off in a huff, I’m a goddamn adult.” 

“Taako,” Lup said, and he could hear her frown even though he was now hiding his face over the stove, which had the unfortunate side effect of pasta steam in his face, “this isn’t about how I think you’ll act. This is about how I think you’ll feel.” 

“Can we just-” Taako began, but Lup cut him off, “No, we can’t ‘just.’ We’ve all been through hell, and I know it seems easier to just ignore it and find a new normal but you can’t just erase the past.”

Taako’s lips twitched, and he wasn’t smirking exactly, and he wasn’t exactly trying to control his face so he wouldn’t cry, but his silence gave Lup enough time to realize the irony in her words. She sighed. 

“Look, I’m your sister. It’s my actual job to bother you towards emotional health. It’s in the handbook.”

Taako took the out. 

“Those sister duties seem to get stricter every year,” he said, “might want to get in touch with the fantasy union.”

“I’ll get right on it,” Lup replied. 

-

In the end, the IPRE “can we all just hangout outside of the goddamn public eye” get together went… surprisingly smoothly. Davenport disguised himself as Merle for the first half hour until Merle actually showed up, and Magnus brought a dog with him because “she gets nervous when she’s left alone,” but on the grand scale of shenanigans, it barely registered at 1.0. 

After everyone else had dispersed, Lup rested her head in Barry’s lap (and god she could feel his hands in her hair, she could feel the warmth of his leg, she could feel her own legs falling asleep and her impending hangover and she never would have thought that she’d be ecstatic about it), and sighed. 

“Taako?” Barry asked, because when you spend decades in love, you stop needing to ask what’s wrong. 

“He didn’t look at her all night, Bar. I haven’t heard him say her  _ name,  _ even.”

“It hasn’t been that long,” Barry said, “I don’t think any of us are really… okay.” 

Lup snuggled closer. 

“I know,” she sighed, “but at least we can admit we aren’t okay. Taako just…”

“He’ll get there,” Barry reassured her, still combing his fingers through her hair, “It might take him a while, but he’ll get there.” 

“Why can’t it happen nowwwwwwwwww,” she pouted, but with a smile in her voice. 

“Taako has never been convenient for anyone in his whole life, and he’s not about to start now,” Barry replied, and he had the pleasure of watching Lup convulse with laughter because, as she explained, “That is a gigantic understatement.” 

-

It was hard to find someone to talk to about everything after betraying her dearest friends and having her entire life broadcast to every conscious mind in the plane. Lucretia needed a neutral party, and frankly, there were none. Her friends deserved better than to hear her guilt about how she hurt them while the rest of the world couldn’t decide if she was a tragic hero or a puppeteering villain. 

Her blank journal pages stared up at her. She stuck her tongue at them. 

As if she needed more time alone with a book. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Have a quick interlude because the next part got long and I think it deserves its own chapter. Merle accidentally gives good advice, as he is wont to do.

Mavis and Mookie had established a momentary truce to work on “the biggest sandcastle EVER,” and Merle snuck up next to Davenport, who was ankle deep in the ocean and staring at the horizon. 

“Penny for your thoughts, Cap’nport?”

Davenport sighed, and his brow furrowed. Merle fished around in his pockets. 

“Alright, expensive tastes, how about…. 6 silver pieces for your thoughts? I’ll even throw in a fantasy Starbucks loyalty card…”

Merle was gratified to get a grin and a chuckle out of Davenport, but his face wrinkled back down into thoughtful silence. 

“Honestly, Merle? It’s just nice to  _ have  _ thoughts again.” 

There wasn’t much to say to that. Merle let out a weighty exhale, and decided that silence was smarter than putting his foot in his mouth. In his experience, silence got people talking better anyway. 

“The worst part is,” Davenport sighs, “Merle, I was happy. I wasn’t worried about anything, I didn’t need to give orders or make decisions. I was a child.” 

Merle nodded. 

“Hey, at least it was a free vacation,” he offered. Davenport snorted. 

“What are you going to do now?” Davenport asked, turning to look at Merle instead of the horizon. 

“Oh, you know,” Merle dithered. “Enjoy the beach. Take a stab at raising my kids.” 

“Never pegged you as a family man,” Davenport said idly. 

“Well, me neither, but life happens Capn’port.”

“Does it though?” Davenport sighed, “Life hasn’t happened to us for a hundred years.” 

“Maybe you need to go make it happen,” Merle suggested nonchalantly with a wink. He left Davenport to his thoughts and went to yell at Mavis for convincing Mookie to eat sand. 

Davenport stared out at the waves…


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus rushes in to dealing with his loss

“Her name was Julia,” Magnus said to Rosie. Rosie licked his hand in response, because she was a dog. Magnus laughed and scratched her head gently, staring up at the blank ceiling. 

“She was…” he took a breath to steady himself, “she was so beautiful. Every kind of beautiful you can think of,” another breath, “she would’ve loved you Rosie.” 

Rosie licked a tear off of Magnus’ cheek, and he managed a chuckle. 

“Maybe we should go see her.”

 

-

 

In the first heady rushes of grief, Magnus had vowed never to return to Raven’s Roost until he hunted down… someone. 

Years had passed and hundreds of years of memories had returned to him since, however. His loss was so much more than he had known, but the magnitude of losses had caused individual losses to sting less, somehow. Magnus had lost worlds, his own home world, he had lost friends and mentors, he had lost his own life dozens of times. 

Through it all, there still wasn’t a day where he didn’t think of Julia. He still reached out for her in the early mornings. Still bought groceries with her tastes in mind. Still avoided shirts in colors she hadn’t liked. It was about time he gave her a proper goodbye. 

 

-

 

Rosie was off leash but within calling distance, because she was a perfect dog. Lucretia was trailing a respectful distance behind him. 

(“I… are you sure you want me to be there?” she had asked. 

“I want to have it written down. I don’t want it to be forgotten,” he had answered, and that was that.)

“Did I ever tell you that she thought I was a rude jerk for the first three months?” Magnus said, breaking the silence. 

“No, you didn’t,” Lucretia said, and years of habit took over as she held an open notebook in one hand and started writing with the other. 

“She did. It took another six months for me to convince her that I was just an idiot and so smitten with her I couldn’t talk,” Magnus laughed, “It only took another month after that to convince her to marry that idiot.” 

He wiped his eyes, and Lucretia scribbled, and Rosie ran back and forth in front of them, sniffing the ground. 

 

-

 

Raven’s Roost was empty and run down, almost exactly how it had looked on the worst day of Magnus’ life. To distract himself, he looked at the newest addition- a plaque. 

“Here we remember and honor the lives lost at the hands of….” Lucretia read aloud, “Who was …….?”

“I don’t remember anymore,” Magnus replied, “In Wonderland, it was that or Julia, so…”

He wasn’t facing Lucretia, so he didn’t see her face crumple into a puzzle of guilt. He did hear her when she asked, gently, 

“Tell me about Julia.” 

Rosie had returned to him, and was leaning against his leg. He appreciated the comforting weight. 

“Julia was… she was amazing. Everyone she talked to walked away feeling better. She was an artist- she’d help Stephen with his work but it wasn’t her passion. Sometimes, she would take all day staring at a canvas and only making a single change. Every now and then I’d have to carry her away to bed, or else she’d be up all night to get something perfect. Hell, every now and then she’d do the same to me.”

Lucretia smiled at him, her hand moving almost automatically over the pages. 

“I know it’s hard to believe, but she loved animals more than I do.”

“Really?” Lucretia was skeptical.

“Really,” Magnus confirmed, and Lucretia noted quietly to herself that his smile was almost completely free of the sadness that had hung over him before, “She was a vegetarian, wanted a pet snake but Stephen wouldn’t let her when she was a kid. When we moved out, she started looking to adopt the biggest one she could find, just to be rebellious.” 

Lucretia laughed. 

“She really did have you beat.”

“Yeah,” Magnus said, somber again, “She did.” 

 

-

 

The ride back was quiet, but not awkward. Rosie slept curled up on a seat by Magnus, who scratched her idly and stared out the window. Lucretia cleared her throat. 

“Magnus…,” she ignored how he started and pressed on, “thank you. For inviting me.” 

“Thank me for… interrupting your life to be my free therapist?” he said, confused. 

“Thank you for,” she took a deep sigh, “For trusting me with this. If I hadn’t… if things weren’t… I can’t help but think that if things were different, you never would have lost her.” 

Magnus’ expression was unreadable, too many emotions in his eyes to analyze, but he settled into a watery smile, and patted Lucretia’s knee with the hand that wasn’t tangled in Rosie’s fur. 

“I might never have met her either,” he said, and Lucretia didn’t have an answer to that, so the rest of the trip was silent as they both thought about what they’d lost and found. 


End file.
